Month: November 2018

What kind of standards do you set for the product or service your company produces? Is “good” good enough? Or do you strive for excellence and consistently aspire to do better?

The difference between A and B starts with mindset. If your team perfunctorily goes through the motions and achieves the minimum, it probably isn’t “A” work. When the team has a strong work ethic and strives to do better each time, it’s likely a very different result.

Thanksgiving is a day of gratitude. It’s a time to pause, reflect, and give thanks for the things that mean the most to you. It’s one of the best times to express your appreciation for the important people in your life.

Beyond your personal expressions of gratitude, think about what you’re grateful for in your professional life. It’s really easy for the frustrations of our daily work life to wind us up, compounding the tensions that exist on the job.

What is your organization doing to grow younger professionals into leaders of the future? If your firm doesn’t have an initiative to accomplish this, it’s in your best interests to create one. Many reasons support this, but for now, let’s focus on two: succession planning and retention.

Succession planning: As companies grows and become more complex, succession planning becomes increasingly important. Even if the leaders who nurtured the company to its current level are still intact, some day they won’t be. Each department should plan for succession. If you don’t have internal candidates, it’s worthwhile to identify the characteristics of who will be appropriate as successor.

There are periods in all organizations when priorities collide and pressure escalates. People react to stress in different ways, and managers need to be mindful of this as they lead the way through rough terrain.

Your employees may become short-tempered, irrational, or even scared. Keep in mind that they may have never experienced whatever is now going on in your company.

Someone made this comment during a meeting and I was struck by its honesty. It didn’t take much further thought to wonder how many employees feel this way. If they have that kind of clarity, how long will they stay before moving on to something they perceive will be better?